The authors made an up-to-date review of the literature concerning the management of Zinner's syndrome and evaluated a young patient with Zinner's syndrome who had presented with urinary and ejaculatory complaints. Physical examination and transrectal ultra-sonography showed a 7.0 cm right seminal vesicle cyst. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed the diagnosis of Zinner's syndrome. Oligoasthenoteratozoospermia was present at the two seminal analyses. Symptomatic improvement was achieved with conservative measures. Actually, the patient is still on a follow-up programme. The diagnosis is usually established at the age of increased sexual activity. Patients may be asymptomatic or present pain, irritative urinary or ejaculatory symptoms and infertility. MRI has proved to be the best imaging examination. Treatment should be adapted to symptoms, surveillance being the best option in the absence of clinical manifestations. Surgical approach may be adequate when conservative measures prove ineffective. Zinner's syndrome should be suspected if a male young patient presents with unilateral renal agenesis and pelvic complaints and has a supraprostatic mass on digital rectal examination. The initial approach should be medical, but invasive procedures may be the only way to solve the patient's complaints. Nowadays, laparoscopic and robotic techniques must replace the open surgical approach.
Introduction: Calcium has several physiological functions and when it registers abnormal serum levels those functions may be impacted with potentially severe consequences. There is much research on hypercalcemia in cancer patients, but there are no recent studies on the prevalence of hypocalcemia in those patients. However, there has been an evolution in oncology, namely, new drugs that may directly or indirectly result in hypocalcemia. The primary aim was to explore the association of hypocalcemia with the diverse types of cancer. The secondary aim was to study the influence that hypocalcemia might have on survival. Methods: Review of the records of patients ≥18 years old, with total calcium <2.0 mmol/L measured in 2013 in a cancer center. Results: Eight hundred twenty-nine patients were included. Four hundred thirty-nine (53%) were male. The median age was 63 years. The most frequent cancer diagnoses were hematological 196 (24%) and colorectal 111 (13%). Six hundred thirty-eight patients had measured serum albumin, with a median of 25.5 g/L (14-47). When corrected for albumin level, calcium was in the normal range in 210 (33%) cases. The median survival of patients with corrected calcium lower than normal was 479 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 309-649) and that of patients with normal corrected calcium was 62 days (95% CI: 33-91), P < .001. In a multivariate analysis, age, primary cancer, and albumin were significantly associated with survival. Conclusion: Hypocalcemia is associated with several types of cancer. A low calcium level is not by itself a factor of a poor prognosis since other factors seem to be more important.
A defect in DNA repair associated with a low folate status may be one additional cause for patients with ulcerative colitis exhibiting MSI in non-neoplastic mucosa.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.